Fundamental Measurements and Modeling of Prescribed Fire Behavior in the Naturally Heterogeneous Fuel Beds of Southern Pine Forests

Abstract

This study examined aspects of pyrolysis to improve the understanding and modeling capability of pyrolysis in physics-based fire spread models. Measurements of pyrolysis gases from foliar fuels at bench, wind-tunnel and field scale showed that convective and radiative heat transfer from flames to live fuel particles influenced pyrolysis composition. Pyrolysis gas composition differed at laboratory and field scales. Dynamic changes in gas composition measured by FTIR were correlated with fire phase determined by IR camera. High-fidelity physics-based modeling. Replacement of an Arrhenius-based model with an equilibrium model for evaporation in the GPyro model resulted in fuel drying dynamics more consistent with evaporation physics. Convective heating seemed to have a greater impact on pyrolysis and burning of an individual leaf compared to radiative heating.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 27, 2021
Accession Number
AD1180629

Entities

People

  • Akira Kato
  • Andrew T. Hudak
  • Babak Shotorban
  • Benjamin C Bright
  • Bret Butler
  • Charles R. Boardman
  • David R Weise
  • E. L. Loudermilk
  • Joseph C Restaino
  • Joseph J. O'Brien
  • Mark A. Dietenberger
  • Marko Princevac
  • Roger D. Ottmar
  • Sara Mcallister
  • Shankar Mahalingam
  • Stephen P Baker
  • Tanya L Myers
  • Thomas H Fletcher
  • Timothy J Johnson
  • Weimin Hao
  • William E Mell

Organizations

  • Brigham Young University
  • Chiba University
  • Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • Pacific Northwest Research Station
  • University of Alabama in Huntsville
  • University of California, Riverside

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Chemical Reaction Properties
  • Combustion
  • Evaporation
  • Fires
  • Fuel Consumption
  • Intervals
  • Moisture
  • Moisture Content
  • Pyrolysis
  • Standards
  • Transition Temperature
  • Two Dimensional
  • Wind Tunnels

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science
  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation